Over the past 40 years, hundreds of thousands of individuals, couples and children have been helped out of homelessness thanks to the legislation. Many thousands of others, including rough sleepers, have been supported to resettle and rebuild their lives by voluntary sector services and housing associations.
If Cathy and her family were homeless today they could go to their local authority and apply for help under the homelessness legislation. As they have children they would be accepted as having a “priority need” and would be accepted for permanent housing. But they still might face a long wait in temporary accommodation.
In the late 1980s the numbers of people sleeping on the streets escalated. The Conservative Government established the Rough Sleepers Initiative in 1990 to tackle the problem, putting extra funding into hostels, outreach and other services to help people escape from the street. Housing associations were funded to offer permanent homes. At first this help was focused in London, where the problem was most acute. Later the programme was extended outside the capital to 26 other towns and cities such as Bristol, Brighton and Manchester where numbers sleeping rough were high. When Labour came to power it renewed the focus on rough sleeping and set a target to reduce rough sleeping to as close to zero as possible by two thirds over the following three years. This level has been achieved and maintained. In most of the country numbers have fallen by three quarters.
1966 Cathy Come Home. Campaign groups form to press for change including Shelter and Campaign for the Homeless and Rootless (CHAR - Homeless Link’s predecessor)
1977 Liberal MP Stephen Ross introduces the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act as a private members bill but supported by the Labour government and Conservatives opposition.
1990 John Major's government introduces the Rough Sleepers Initiative and the Homeless Mentally Ill Initiative, investing in services and accommodation.
1997 Tony Blair sets a target of getting rough sleeping to as close to zero as possible with a two-thirds cut within the next three years.
2001 Two-thirds target achieved and sustained since.
2002 Government sets a target to end the long-term use of B&Bs for homeless families with children, which was achieved in 2004.
2002 Homelessness Act says all local authorities must have a homelessness strategy and extends priority need categories to more groups.
2003 Supporting People programme launched, delivering housing related support for homeless people and other vulnerable groups.
The Scottish Parliament passes the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 and sets target to include all homeless people under the legislation by 2012.
2005 Government’s new homelessness strategy sets a target to halve use of temporary accommodation by 2010, promises an increase in new homes and renewed focus on prevention.